On politics in the Golden State

Prop. 19 headed to defeat, exit polls show

November 2, 2010 | 8:32
pm

California voters appear to have rejected Prop. 19, an effort to legalize marijuana and allow local governments to tax the sale of the drug.

Prop. 19 received national attention, but relatively little money was spent on the campaign. While millions of dollars was spent on other ballot measures, the Prop. 19 campaign was modest by California political standards. Still, no issue received more attention around the state.

The measure was opposed by law enforcement groups and elected officials from both political parties.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder had said the Obama administration would "vigorously enforce" federal drug laws against Californians who grow or sell marijuana for recreational use even if voters passed the legalization measure.

The Times is projecting Proposition 19's defeat based on preliminary information from the National Voter Pool survey, conducted for The Times by Edison Research. The National Voter Pool is a consortium of the major television news networks and the Associated Press. The survey was conducted at 50 polling places among roughly 2,200 election day voters and was supplemented by a telephone survey of roughly 600 voters who cast ballots by mail.